I've had my very-expensive Jazzmutant Lemur for about a month now, and I've only now put my finger on why it is so unsatisfactory.

Unlike a hardware controller with real knobs, buttons and sliders, I always have to look at the screen while I'm tweaking the controls. I can't just grab a knob and start looking somewhere else while I move it. I can't look at the computer screen. I can't look at my other instruments. So I lose context. I'm constantly disorientated because I have to cross-reference one screen with another screen.

With all control being so contingent on looking at the controls I'm manipulating, the lack of comprehensive visual feedback is a real weakness. In the grid of Ableton Live Scenes I can't see which ones have clips in them without reference to the computer screen, so I'm constantly hitting the wrong row when I want to launch something, often triggering off a recording (and not noticing straight away).

The JazzEditor software does a reasonable job of helping to set up screens, with live synchronisation of the view between the computer and the Lemur's screens. It's streets ahead of a lot of the software I've had for setting up other hardware controllers (the Kenton Spin Doctor editor, for example, is TERRIBLE, and I don't even have the option of editing XML directly!). However, it still requires a LOT of pain to get even a basic set of controls set up, more so given the need to make information feed back from the computer to the Lemur. I have been through an awful lot of pain to make even the most basic presets, and don't forget - I am a professional computer programmer!

In summary: if I can't get a certain amount of information onto the Lemur's screen then I have to be looking at two screens. If I can't tell what control I'm touching without looking then I can't comfortably cross-reference between the two screens. Boo.